Review: Bulleit Bourbon

I love the Bulleit guys. I have honestly never met friendlier people in the course of my travels. Gracious, honest, and plain spoken, I’d drink Bulleit even if it tasted like swill just because I think it would make me a better person.

Fortunately, Bulleit’s “Frontier Whiskey” is plenty good going down the hatch. Bulleit calls it “reminiscent of our frontier heritage.” I call it reminiscent of Jack Daniel’s. It’s an honest, old-school, rough-around-the-edges bourbon with a real kick. It’s a 90 proof gut-puncher (crafted from a 175-year-old recipe) that gives off the flavor of its charred oak barrels more than anything else: Bulleit spends six years-plus in those barrels, making it a woody and smoky quaff, but a smooth one if tempered a touch with water.

Bulleit makes for a great blending whiskey with strong mixers like Coke, but it is less exciting when served neat. The smoke is just too overpowering for my tastes, making it hard to pick up much complexity; I prefer more sweetness in straight whiskey than Bulleit gives you. But if you like that heavy smoke-‘n’-oak flavor, this is your concoction, bubby. (Damn if I don’t love that bottle, too.)